1. Interesting update on #PediatricHepatitis from @ECDC_EU + @WHO_Europe. It contains the first epicurve I've seen, which is very helpful because reported cases include current & previous cases found through record searches. The 1st case here dates to Sept 2021.
2. A large majority of the European #PediatricHepatitis cases are really young — 76% under the age of 5.
3. The @ECDC_EU/@WHO_Europe #PediatricHepatitis update says as of May 13, a total of 232 cases have been reported. Puzzled by the UK number (131) because yesterday @UKHSA reported 176 cases.
This report reports 3 epidemiologically linked cases, which is interesting.
4. You can see from this screen shot that information being reported by countries is quite spotty. For instance, they report that of 98 #PediatricHepatitis cases for which there is information, 6 needed liver transplants & 1 died. What of the other 134 children?
5. Only 151 of these #PediatricHepatitis cases were tested for #adenovirus; 60% of them were positive. But a lot of the testing was done on samples that are not the best way to search for it. Best approach is whole blood.
6. Of the 176 children with #PediatricHepatitis who were tested for SARS-2 (the cause of Covid), 11.6% tested positive. This is for active infection, not testing for prior infection.
They had Covid vaccination information for 56 of the 232 cases. 47/56 or 83.9% were unvaxed.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Helen Branswell 🇺🇦

Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @HelenBranswell

May 10
1. @WHO held a press briefing today. Some interesting but disparate points made at it.
Pediatric #hepatitis: To date 348 probable cases from 5 regions of the world have met the case definition; 70 more are being studied. Only 6 countries have reported more than five cases.
2. Of the pediatric #hepatitis cases, 70% have tested positive for adenovirus, mostly type 41. ~18% of the cases tested positive for #Covid19. @WHO's Philippa Easterbrook says while adenovirus is still the chief suspect, prior or current Covid as a cofactor is still in the mix.
3. @WHO's Easterbrook says "within the week" there should be data from a UK case control study comparing adenovirus rates between kids with hepatitis of unknown etiology and other hospitalized children. Will help to see if #adenovirus is an incidental finding, she said.
Read 8 tweets
Apr 28
1. @ECDC_EU has characterized the cases of pediatric #hepatitis of unknown origin as a "public health event of concern." In a risk assessment posted Thursday, ECDC said cases are rare & the risk for kids can't be accurately assessed but when it occurs, the impact can be high.
2. The numbers of cases of pediatric #hepatitis of unknown origin are changing all the time, as are the number of countries reporting. Even though this just came out from @ECDC, the numbers are already out of date. At present, at least 4 US states have detected 21 cases.
3. Unusual pediatric #hepatitis cases in the US have been detected in Alabama, Ill., NC & Calif. There may be additional states that I don't know of.
@ECDC_EU reports there are 55 cases in 12 EU countries. Israel, Japan + Canada has reported cases. The UK has found as least 114.
Read 7 tweets
Apr 26
1. @UKHSA published a technical brief today on the unusual #hepatitis cases in young children. It contains a bunch of interesting information. You can find it here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
2. So far the UK has found 114 of these unusual #hepatitis cases in kids. (111 in the screenshot is out of date.) Most of the kids are under 5. 10 required liver transplants. The UK is reporting the largest number of these cases so far.
3. The unusual #hepatitis cases date back to the beginning of this year in the UK (to October in Alabama) but the preponderance of them have been seen in March & April. The UK is also seeing a lot of adenovirus activity. Adenovirus is the main suspect here.
Read 7 tweets
Apr 26
1. It's rare to have a single #Ebola case. How big will the current outbreak in #DRC get? Anyone's guess at this point. But authorities have confirmed a 2nd person has died at Mbandaka, the sister-in-law of the first identified case.
2. The woman died yesterday; she started experiencing symptoms 12 days earlier, ie about a week after her now dead brother-in-law. No word yet if she was treated in hospital & if so, if the hospital realized she had #Ebola & staff took appropriate precautions.
3. @WHOAFRO says that 145 contacts of these two people have been identified and are being monitored to see if they develop symptoms of #Ebola and need to be isolated.
No word yet if the 2nd case had been previously vaccinated; the 1st case was.
Read 5 tweets
Apr 25
1. This was fast! Genetic sequencing of #Ebola viruses collected from a man in NW #DRC who died on April 21 reveals that this is a new spillover event, not resurgence of activity from earlier outbreaks in this part of DRC.
The sequencing was done at @inrb_kinshasa.
Short 🧵
2. In the past getting an answer to this would have taken a lot more time. Impressive to see how quickly this question was answered.
The sequencing information was contained in a report that discloses important details about this new #Ebola case. virological.org/t/april-2022-e…
3. The man who died of #Ebola on April 21 in Mbandaka was vaccinated against Ebola in 2020 during an earlier outbreak there.
The main purpose of the Merck Ebola vaccine is to extinguish outbreaks. Questions remain about how long it protects. This is n=1, but 😟.
Read 6 tweets
Apr 23
1. #Ebola thread.
#DRC has declared a new #Ebola outbreak after diagnosing the disease in a 31 yo man who died in Mbandaka in NW DRC. This is across the country from the terrible North Kivu-Ituri outbreak that raged from 2018-2020.
afro.who.int/countries/demo…
2. The man began experiencing symptoms on April 5 but only ended up in an #Ebola treatment unit on April 21. That means there were probably unsafe exposures during that time. Or as @MoetiTshidi put it: "The disease has had a two-week head start and we are now playing catch-up."
3. On the positive side: at the #Ebola treatment unit, staff recognized what they were dealing with & were protected. The man was given a safe burial.
And there are a lot of people in Mbandaka & surrounding region who have been vaccinated with the Merck Ebola vaccine. #DRC
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(